


The Road Trip

by AlannaLioness, eafay70



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Friends to Lovers, M/M, Podfic, Podfic & Podficced Works, Podfic Length: 10-20 Minutes, Road Trips, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:47:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25650838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlannaLioness/pseuds/AlannaLioness, https://archiveofourown.org/users/eafay70/pseuds/eafay70
Summary: Holster and Ransom spend their spring break on a road trip. Things go wrong, feelings are felt - and Bitty seals the deal with pie.
Relationships: Adam "Holster" Birkholtz/Justin "Ransom" Oluransi
Comments: 6
Kudos: 20
Collections: Pod_Together 2020





	The Road Trip

**Author's Note:**

> This work was written by eafay70 with input from AlannaLioness.  
> This work was podficced by AlannaLioness.
> 
> Podficcers notes: I just want to deeply express my gratitude to eafay70 for this. It was a delight to record and I am grateful.

**Streaming**

If your browser doesn't support streaming with the HTML5 audio tag, you can still download this podfic as an MP3 via the link below.

[Podfic Here](http://pod-together.parakaproductions.com/2020/The%20Road%20Trip.mp3)

* * *

“Ransom! Bro!”

He jolted upwards, blinking at his textbook. “Yo, Holster, no need to shout.”

“When you don’t answer me for five minutes, yes need to shout.” Holster stepped into view. “I was asking if you had spring break plans.”

“Spring break?” Ransom frowned. “I can’t think about spring break. I have midterms to worry about, and graduation stuff to plan, and…” He gulped. “Yeah.”

“Exactly! We need to get away from it all for a bit.” Holster placed a stack of papers on top of the textbook. “So I thought, let’s road trip!”

Ransom looked at the papers cautiously. “Going down the east coast, eh?”

“Yeah, bro! I’ve never been to those places, so I want to see the sights.” Holster grinned, a slight hint of nerves in his voice. “What do you think?”

“I think it’ll work.” Ransom held out a fist, which Holster bumped. “Let’s do it, bro.”

* * *

Ransom knew that Holster had done a fair amount of planning before suggesting this trip, not to mention a fair amount of planning during the weeks between suggesting it and actually starting it. However, Ransom knew that Holster was only human, and there were several factors out of their control, so something was bound to go wrong.

He just didn’t expect a problem to arise before they’d even left campus.

“You didn’t get gas, Holster?!”

“I thought it already had gas!”

With a groan, Ransom asked, “When did you last check?”

Holster furrowed his brow in thought. “Thursday, right before Bitty borrowed it. It was half full.”

Ransom groaned again. “Why didn’t you check afterwards?? You know Bitty goes all over the place when he’s looking for kitchen stuff!”

“Bro, I’m sorry!” Holster insisted. “Look, we have enough to stop at the gas station two streets away. It’s the wrong direction for getting on the highway, but it’s not the end of the world.”

“Okay, bro. I’m sorry for getting upset.”

Holster smiled, then drove to the gas station. Everything else was going to be fine.

* * *

The rest of that day went reasonably well. They didn’t see much in terms of specific sights, but the hours spent listening to tunes and not thinking about college or the future were absolutely great.

However, it was now nighttime, and Holster was learning that Ransom might not have been the best choice for handling the hotel reservations.

“Did you check any sort of reviews, bro?” Holster asked as the toilet continued to whistle. “I knew we weren’t going to splurge on Ritz Carltons or anything like that, but…”

“I didn’t see any reviews,” Ransom sighed. “I figured that if it was really bad or really good, there would be reviews, but an average place wouldn’t prompt anyone to say anything. I guess I should have dug around more.”

“It’s okay.” Holster pressed his hand against the mattress. “Maybe this is the hockey gods’ way of making us appreciate our beds at the Haus.”

“Probably.” Ransom got into his equally hard bed with a sigh. “Good night.”

“Night, bro. Tomorrow can only be better.”

* * *

The following day was better in that Ransom and Holster saw a lot of cool sights. They both took lots of pictures, some of which they sent to their friends and family.

However, once nighttime came, things went wrong again. Specifically, they realized too late that they were nowhere near the hotel where Ransom had made reservations for that night. They managed to find a motel with a vacancy, but it wasn’t until after getting to the room that they realized there was only one bed.

“At least it’s a big bed,” Holster said. He pressed his hand against the mattress. “And it’s not as hard as last night’s.”

Ransom poked his head in the bathroom. “The shower is ridiculously small, bro.”

“Weird, bro.” Holster yawned loudly. “Sorry in advance if I kick.”

“Same here.”

They got ready for bed quickly. “Night, bro,” Holster said as he turned off the light.

“Good night,” Ransom yawned.

They woke up to the sound of thunder about an hour before their alarms were set to go off. Holster checked the weather on his phone. “Rain all day.”

“So we focus on driving instead of taking pictures,” Ransom said. “Let’s hit the road.”

* * *

The rest of the trip went about as well as the first two days: not perfectly, but still enjoyable. They saw lots of cool sights and took lots of pictures to share in group chats. The hotels were never particularly fancy, but they only had to share a bed two other times; not once did they kick or otherwise wake each other up.

All in all, by the time Ransom and Holster returned to campus, they considered their spring break road trip a success. Traffic meant it was very late at night, so they didn’t actually say anything to each other right away; they just trudged to their room and got ready for bed.

“I don’t have the energy to climb up to my bunk,” Ransom mumbled.

“Then I’ll share, bro.” Holster got under the covers of his bunk, then patted the mattress.

“Thanks, bro.” Ransom slipped under the covers. “Night, bro.”

“Good night, bro.”

* * *

From the outside, things between Ransom and Holster seemed perfectly normal on the first day back from spring break. However, as Bitty learned while taking a pie out of the oven that afternoon, things were not, in fact, normal.

“Bro!” Holster whined as he entered the kitchen. “My feelings are all messed up!”

“Well, now, just take a seat and tell me all about it while we _wait_ for this pie to cool and _don’t_ try to eat it while it’s still hot!” Bitty glared at Holster until he backed away from the pie and sat down. “Did something happen during the road trip?”

“Yeah,” Holster sighed. “When I thought of the idea, I thought it’d be fun to go driving with my best friend, seeing the sights in a part of the country I’ve never been to - I’m from Boston, so NYC always seemed completely different, you know?”

Bitty hummed in acknowledgement. “In the pictures, y’all looked happy.”

“We were, but, like… well, the hotels weren’t that great, so we had to sleep in the same bed a few times, and… we did it again last night because Ransom was too tired to go up to his bunk, and it was…” Holster groaned.

“You’re going to have to explain beyond just a groan,” Bitty prompted gently.

“It felt nice! And I think I want to do it again, but more!”

“As in…”

“I like him! More than I thought I did!” Holster let out a big sigh. “I think I want to be his boyfriend.”

Bitty hummed again. “Maybe you should do some more thinking and also talk to him.”

“I can do more thinking,” Holster agreed. “Thanks, Bitty!”

“You’re welcome. Just don’t forget the part where you talk to him.” By now, the pie had cooled, so Bitty gave Holster a slice.

Not long after Holster left the kitchen, Bitty got to work on his next pie. He was quickly interrupted by a loud groan. “Bitty! Help! I’m feeling feelings!”

“Have I taught y’all nothing, Ransom?” Bitty indulged in an eye roll before turning around to face his teammate. “Feelings are healthy.”

“Well, I don’t like them!” Ransom sat down with a groan. “When I agreed to go on the road trip with Holster, I thought we’d just be two bros in a car looking at cool things. But I screwed up hotel stuff a few times, and then even more things happened, so… we had to sleep in the same bed. And then last night, we were so late getting back… I didn’t want to go up to my bunk, so Holster let me sleep in his bunk with him…”

Bitty sliced off a piece of the already-made pie and gave it to Ransom. “And how do you feel about all that?”

“I feel… closer to him. And I… like that. I don’t know if that means we’re supposed to be boyfriends, but it feels like more than it used to be?” Ransom sighed. “I think I mostly feel confused, which isn’t what I’m used to with Holster.”

“Well, I would recommend thinking more about your feelings, and I would also recommend talking to him about your feelings.”

Ransom nodded. “Thinking about feelings. Okay.”

“And talking to him!” Bitty glared, unsurprised that that part was being ignored.

* * *

Bitty carefully observed Ransom and Holster for a week. He noticed that they were spending a lot of time together, which was good because it meant things were reasonably normal. However, he also noticed that they kept glancing wistfully at each other when they weren’t looking at each other, which was bad because it meant they hadn’t talked about their feelings. And bless their hearts, but if they hadn’t done it on their own after a week, they probably weren’t going to do it on their own, so it was time to take some action.

“Holster, would you be so kind as to taste-test a pie for me?” Bitty asked. “It’s a new recipe, and I’m just not sure I have the flavors just right.”

“Of course, bro!” Holster stood up from his bunk. “Is it done baking yet?”

“Yep! It’s cooling in the room next to the first floor broom closet. I don’t want it to get mixed up in the other things I’m doing. Thank you!” He hurried downstairs to the TV room, where Ransom was sitting by himself. “Ransom, I have a new pie recipe that needs a good taste-testing. Would you be so kind as to give it a try?”

“Duh!” Ransom practically jumped to his feet.

“Thank you so much! It’s in the room next to the broom closet.” Bitty walked with Ransom to the room in question, getting there just as Holster was entering the room. With a dramatic flourish, Bitty ushered them into the room and ordered, “Now talk about your feelings like I told you to do!”

“HEY!” Ransom and Holster shouted as Bitty left, closing the door behind him with a ‘clink.’

Holster blinked and looked around the room. “Well, at least he didn’t lie about there being pie.”

“I’m not sure Eric Bittle is physically capable of lying about pie,” Ransom noted. He gulped nervously as he took a slice of pie. “So… yeah. I talked to Bitty awhile ago -”

“When?” Holster asked, taking his own slice. “Because I talked to him the day after we got back from spring break.”

“That’s the day I talked to him!”

They stood in silence for about a minute.

“So…” Ransom gulped nervously again. “The road trip was fun, but weird at parts, and the weird parts got me thinking about… you.”

“Oh,” Holster frowned. “I mean, that’s a good description of it, but… I don’t want things to be weird now just because we’re both thinking.”

“Just because feelings are weird doesn’t mean we have to be!” Ransom said quickly. “We can, like, pretend the feelings aren’t there, bro! We’ll go back to normal!”

Holster furrowed his brow even more. “But if we’re both feeling feelings about each other, then we don’t need to pretend.”

Ransom put down his pie, as did Holster. “I… like you enough to want to be your boyfriend.”

“And I like you enough to want to be your boyfriend.” Holster held out his hand, which Ransom took. “Can I kiss you now?”

“Yes, please.”

They leaned forward and kissed. It was brief, but nevertheless intense enough that they didn’t pull apart until they heard Bitty unlock and open the door very loudly. “Well done, both of you! Now actually eat the pie and tell me what you think! It’s a maple syrup-Boston cream recipe I designed with you in mind.”

With a wistful sigh, Ransom and Holster stopped holding hands long enough to eat the pie. “S’awesome, bro,” Holster declared.

“Totally,” Ransom agreed.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for listening/reading! Feedback is always greatly appreciated!


End file.
